Just goes to show how much of an influence some inkers had on the pencils they went over! First glance at Superman and I initially thought, Anderson art. Not until looking at the other figures that I realized it was Kirby. I'd have to say my fave Kirby combo is Jack and Joe Sinnott, and we'll have to agree to disagree on Vince Colletta. Although Royer was a good match for Jack as well. Another couple of brilliant combos for my money would be "Swanderson" (Swan and Anderson, but you knew that) and John Buscema inked by his brother Sal.

If it weren't for the fact that the Superman figure is in a typical Kirby pose, I'd have suspected it was by Anderson and the rest by JK. Even better than Jack and Joe Sinnott, in my opinion, was JK and Wally Wood, PC. And whilst Royer's a good inker, he inked Kirby art as it was pencilled, whereas it really needed an inker who diluted Jack's idiosyncratic style while retaining the good parts. Swanderson were great, but good as Sal's inks were over brother John's pencils, I preferred Tom Palmer inking him.

Ah yes - Tom Palmer! That guy brought out the best in just about every artist he embellished - best match were his inks and Gene Colan's pencils. Tomb of Dracula saw the perfect combo of artist and inker in my opinion. Pity the collected volumes of that series have come to a halt. You'd think more punters would know quality when they see it and buy the things. In regard to Royer, I guess it depends on how you feel about Kirby's original art. Some of my faves are the Buscema / Palmer Avengers issues. We really were spoilt back in the day with all of this classic inks and pencils, a lot of the current comics see the art swamped in an overdose of colour and Photoshop effects - too cluttered for clear and concise story telling let along being able to apreciate the qualities of the initial pencil art, lost in there somewhere.

STUDIO 77

About the artist:

From 1985 to 2000 A.D. (little joke there), I contributed to a variety of high profile comics and magazines for various companies.

For IPC/FLEETWAY/EGMONT, I freelanced as a lettering and logo artiston various weekly comics and monthly magazines, and also as a resize comic artistandspot illustratoron pocket books, summer specials and annuals.

ForMARVEL U.K., BLACK LIBRARY, REDAN and USBORNE BOOKS, I again freelanced as a lettering artist, also working as arestoration artistfor MARVEL U.S., restoring and re-creating certain pages of JACK KIRBY art for their MARVEL MASTERWORKS editions.

I also lettered the MARVELMAN sample pages submitted to MARVEL U.S. when they were considering acquiring the character, which - as we all now know - they DID.

Supplied comic strips, cartoons and illustrated advertisements for local business campaigns and newspaper publication on a professional basis since the age of 16. Did my first paid art job for publication at 14 or 15 for Lanarkshire Education Board.

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